The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board has been trying to improve the auditor’s report since 2011. They keep running into stiff headwinds that just won’t go away. Maybe the last obstacle remaining is getting their overlord, the SEC, to sign off on the proposed revision of the auditor’s report. The PCAOB finalized it around the…

This column by Gretchen Morgenson, highlighting forensic accounting work done by Accountability Research Corporation of Toronto, certainly makes a strong argument that IFRS isn’t the most robust set of standards in the world. You should read the article, but one highlight stood out, in my view, regarding the bankruptcy of Sears Canada: “Sears Canada’s numbers…

It took years to get here, but it finally arrived. The PCAOB voted on June 1st to issue a new standard that will require auditors to publish an audit report that is much more than the rubber stamp it has been for the last 70 years. The project has been years in the making, starting…

Next year the FASB’s new revenue recognition standard will go into effect for calendar year companies. The standard, ASU No. 2014-9, made a huge splash when it debuted in 2014. Yet 2018 is just around the corner, and estimates now made will likely need to be revised based on the effects of the standard. And…

Last summer, the FASB issued an invitation to comment on their agenda plans. Now that the really “big ticket” projects have been completed – the ones like revenue recognition, leasing, and credit losses – the Board is casting about for where to direct their attention next. I put my views forward in this letter. One…

Note: This post is a collaboration with our friends at Audit Analytics. Together, we reviewed the first batch of the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance non-GAAP comments. The blog below is the result, which is also posted on their blog. The SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance (DCF) released its newest guidance on the “do’s and don’ts”…

Last week, I attended the AICPA’s annual “SEC & PCAOB Current Events Conference” – like hundreds of other CPAs needing their annual fix of information, gossip and camaraderie, though not necessarily in that order. I’ve been a steady attendee for a long time (since 1988), so I notice differences emerging from the conferences over the…

Sometimes a story dominates headlines for a while, with endless chatter by the press and observers that’s mostly repetition of the same facts or themes. Then the story fades away, and years later, you wonder: how did that story turn out? The saga of Hewlett-Packard’s misadventure in acquiring Autonomy Corporation is one of those “what…

Last July, the SEC proposed an “update and simplification” of its disclosure rules. The roots of this project came from the JOBS Act of 2012, and its growth was hurried along by the FAST Act of 2015. The proposal has some good things going for it, like removing references to implementation dates for standards that…